Monday, January 13, 2014

Spotty

My sister was keen for the kids to start using glass rather than plastic cups, but wanted different colours so they could each identify their own glass for the day. I shopped around a little, and I know I could have found a suitable coloured set, but I liked the idea of customising some plain ones myself. Actually, the ones I found weren't totally plain, but they were the right size and shape for smaller hands, and I quite liked the bubbles/circles in the glass.

Two things made trying this seem reasonably doable to me: one was that I could buy permanent glass paint in pen form, and the other was finding many images of this "confetti" style glassware - inspired by the glassware made with coloured glass speckles in clear glass, many people had made their own cheaper versions with paint.

I didn't go for the full confetti look, which I think would have needed more colours (and/or some white in the mix) but I was happy with simple spots. I had a set of six small glasses and only three colours of paint, so I did some of them with spots in two colours. But even with the colour combinations, I thought the distinctions might be a bit too subtle, so I added either a heart or a spiral to each one on the bottom.

The paint is supposed to be dishwasher safe. I imagine it will eventually wear off, but I hope it lasts a good while. You have to read the fine print though. I managed to get two pens which said just to let it dry for 72 hours, but unexpectedly the third said the glass had to be heated in the oven to about 150 degrees. So I cooked them all, starting with the glasses in the cold oven as it heated up, to avoid shocking and breaking them. My oven isn't really working properly - only the top (grill) element heats up, but I think that was enough to get them hot enough to set the paint. At least I hope so!